In a previous article, the author talked to you about the abolition of 24 counties in Shandong Province in 1956. Today, we talk about another problem, and that is the problem of re-establishment. In 1961, Shandong Province re-established 3 special districts in one go, in addition, 28 counties were re-established. Please note that this is a very large administrative division adjustment. The establishment of 28 counties is not a small matter, so why is there such a big administrative division adjustment? Today, we talk about this.
First of all, let's talk about the administrative division system of the mainland. During the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties, the mainland always implemented a system of sub-feudalism. However, there were many problems with the feudal system, and there was even a scuffle between various princes. Therefore, in the Qin and Han dynasties, the county system gradually replaced the sub-feudal system. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the prefecture and county system gradually replaced the county system. At that time, the administrative divisions of the mainland were divided into two levels of prefectures and counties, and the imperial court directly administered various places. After the Yuan Dynasty unified the world, the territory of the empire was unprecedentedly vast. The original state-level and county-level management system no longer meets the needs of management.
The Yuan Dynasty introduced the provincial system that has been used today, dividing the country into 10 provinces. However, the provincial system of the Yuan Dynasty was problematic and the division was not reasonable enough. After the Ming Dynasty expelled the Yuan Dynasty forces, it re-planned the division of each province. At that time, the basic differences between Henan Province, Shandong Province, Zhejiang Province and other provinces were established during the reign of the Ming Dynasty. In the mid-17th century, after the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, because it did not have much administrative experience, the Qing Dynasty followed all aspects of the Regulations and Systems of the Ming Dynasty, including the provincial system. The administrative divisions of Shandong Province did not change much, and this situation continued into the modern period. In the blink of an eye, in the early days of the founding of the people's republic, there was an adjustment in the administrative level of the mainland.
By 1949, Shandong province had a total of 15 special districts under its jurisdiction and a total of 137 counties under its administration. Please note that due to various problems in Jiangsu Province, Xuzhou and other places in northern Jiangsu are temporarily included in Shandong Province. Therefore, there are more counties under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province. In addition, due to the influence of hundreds of years, the jurisdiction of the county was smaller than that of the current county. If we look at Henan Province, Kaifeng County was formed from the merger of Kaifeng County and Chenliu County, and Lankao County had Lanfeng County and Kaocheng County merged, and such situations also abound in Shandong Province.
In 1950, Shandong Province carried out the first round of administrative division adjustment, and the number of special districts dropped from 15 to 11. As for the number of counties, it dropped from 137 to 123. In 1952, due to the abolition of Pingyuan Province, Liaocheng Prefecture, Heze Prefecture and Huxi Prefecture under the jurisdiction of Pingyuan Province were all merged into Shandong Province. Please note that these areas were originally from Shandong Province. After these areas were assigned to Shandong Province, the number of special districts in Shandong Province reached 14, and the number of counties under jurisdiction reached 140. The number of counties under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province has increased again, in fact, there are many densely packed small counties. From the perspective of economic development and overall planning, a considerable number of counties need to be abolished and merged.
In 1953 and 1956, Shandong Province underwent two rounds of large-scale county mergers and adjustments. Among them, in 1953, a total of more than 10 counties were abolished. In 1956, a total of 24 more districts were abolished. After two large-scale adjustments, the number of special districts under the jurisdiction of Shandong Province dropped to 8, and the number of counties dropped to 104. The time entered the late 1950s, when the administrative divisions of the whole country were adjusted, and there was a trend of large specialized districts and large counties.
Under this model, the administrative divisions of Shandong Province have once again undergone large-scale adjustments. In 1958, a total of 33 counties were abolished in Shandong Province, and the number of counties under the jurisdiction of the province dropped by 71, and the number of special districts was 6. Seriously speaking, the communication and transportation technology at that time was very limited, and the jurisdiction was too large to manage at all. For example, a special district has more than 20 counties under its jurisdiction, and it may take several days for cadres from each county to go to the special district office for meetings. It also takes a long time for cadres from each township to go to the county seat for a meeting. There are also many problems in other areas, involving all aspects of work. In the early 1960s, the problems of college districts and large counties began to appear, because many provinces began to restore their previous administrative divisions.
In 1961, Shandong Province re-established the Huimin Special Zone, the Tai'an Special Zone, and the Dezhou Special Zone. At the same time, 28 counties were re-established, including Changqing County, Bin County, Yucheng County, Wucheng County, Ling County, Shanghe County, Jiyang County, Guantao County, Yanggu County, Dong'a County, Huang County, Dingtao County, Dongping County, Yanzhou County, and Fushan County. As of December 1961, Shandong Province had 9 special districts under its jurisdiction, with a total of 98 counties under its administration. In addition, there are 4 prefecture-level cities with small jurisdictions. At this point, the administrative divisions in Shandong Province have basically stabilized.
From the early days of the Founding of the People's Republic of China to the early 1960s, the administrative divisions of Shandong Province underwent a series of complex changes, with many special districts abolished or merged, and some counties abolished. In the mid-1960s, Shandong Province and neighboring provinces underwent some administrative division adjustments. In order to deal with the Yellow River problem, Henan Province divided Dongming County in its own Kaifeng Special District into Shandong Province. In order to compensate for the losses of Henan Province, Shandong Province divided its own Taiqian County and Fan County into Henan Province. Together with Nanle County and Qingfeng County, which were incorporated from Hebei Province, together they formed the current Puyang City in Henan Province.
In order to control the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Hebei Province divided its own Ningjin County and Qingyun County into Shandong Province. In order to compensate for the loss of Hebei Province, Shandong Province divided Guantao County and the western part of Linqing City into Hebei Province. After the western part of Linqing City was incorporated into Hebei Province, Linxi County was established because it was located west of Linqing City. From the mid-to-late 1960s, the problem of zoning between Shandong Province and surrounding provinces was basically solved. There are many more stories about the adjustment of administrative divisions in various regions of the mainland, and the author will talk to you slowly in future articles.